On to Isla Grande Panama

The San Blas Islands were beautiful and the water crystal clear but we were on a mission to transit the canal and had to keep moving. We headed for the coast of Panama and pulled into Isla Grande which was our first real stop on the mainland.

i did the whole circle of the inlet in photos but i'm not going to subject you to all of them...suffice it to say it was a really pretty anchorage...and we were protected by the Black Christ which i thought was just gorgeous with the pelican below.

On shore we explored along a path that takes you to the tip of the island.

 Couldn't resist those red doors.

 Or the shell bridge

Or the cozy chairs just waiting for someone to lounge.

 Ate here and

 watched the waves

and the sunset....nice place! Tomorrow it is on to Portobelo.

San Blas Islands

So we motored out of the Cartagena harbor, popped the sails and went along the coast passing fish farms that must be a total hazard at night. Lucky for us we passed them in the daytime. We were looking for a quiet spot to stop to do some boat maintenance before making the crossing to the San Blas islands. Found a nice deserted anchorage and spent the night, cleaned the bottom of all the Cartagena muck, did a little bird watching and took off.

Did a lot of down wind sailing then saw the San Blas Islands around 4:00pm in the afternoon after a day and a half of sailing.

Picked an island to moor off of and dropped anchor.

Being the swimmer that i am i swam to shore and did some exploring. On the way back i saw underwater
what i thought was a crocodile but talked my self out of it. Back on board we discussed the possibility but decided it must have been a very large iguana. Days later we come to find out it was a crocodile.

The islands really look like the cartoons with these few palms sticking up and one hut.

 Notice the Pot Lids used for patches in the bottom of this guys canoe. He was trying to sell us too small lobster and we turned him down.

Hope you enjoyed the pics...tomorrow is Panama.

I'm back...Columbia pictures first

Had a great trip sailing down island. Started in St. Vincent and ended in Panama City, Panama. The cat was a 48' Schionning built from a kit by the owner over two years. They had been on board for five years and were winding down a round the world jaunt. i was only with them for 6 weeks which although short for them was a long time to be away for me. i loved every minute of it and was even able to get in some good birding which is incredibly difficult from a boat.

We transited the canal which was the highlight of the trip and made it back home in one piece. Not too many boat bites on the old body..

Along the way my camera with months worth of photos ended up in the Cartagena harbor. Unfortunately the owner of the boat had been borrowing mine and fell through an open hatch while trying to shoot a photo of her husband rescuing two boats dragging. She broke her rib and wasnt' feeling too well the rest of the trip. The Cartagena harbor is not a place you want to dive into for anything...probably one of the filthiest in the world, so i said good-bye to that piece of my history.

i had an Ipad with me and started trying to take pics with it but i couldn't do justice to the beauty i saw all around me. If you have ever tried to take a picture with a book in your hand you will understand the difficulty. The pics i am going to put here are a small sampling of the places we visited after losing the camera. Actually the Aruba pic i was testing out how it worked before losing mine. Hope you enjoy them...i sure enjoyed the experience.

Aruba

Cartagena, Columbia

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i loved Cartagena it is such a vibrant city. Good food, easy transport, cheap and the old town is just spectacularly beautiful. But as with all big cities the poor side needs some attention too.

The poor parts, the rich parts, the historic bits and the old parts all mix to make Cartagena a special place.

i'll put up more of the trip tomorrow. Hope i didn't bore anyone to death.